Sunday, February 5, 2012

Major set back (Aarrrrgh!!!)

I was literally minutes from completing the installation of the Heat Troller® switch, wanting to get it nice and snug, I destroyed the switch body, turning the entire Heat Troller® into instant junk.

How dumb is that?

This means that the project report, that was also almost done, won't be posted until I get a new Heat Troller®.

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.

PS: Patrick Denayer of Lockitt.comand Deata at Warm and Safe have collaborated so that I can get my damaged Heat Troller® repaired. Jim Hollander of Hot Grips™ has also had his eye on this as you can see from his comments on this post. Quite honestly this is just incredible customer service, and for a customer who messed up a perfectly good piece of equipment. That'll teach me that working in a cold garage might numb the brain. It's amazing to be rescued from my self-made misfortune by such caring suppliers.

13 comments:

I've done the same thing and quietly wept when I was nearly finished the install of heated grips and the switch housing crumbled in my hands as I tried to 'finesse' it into position. Fortunately it was a Radio Shack micro switch and I was able to run down the store the next day and buy another one. Delicate little things, aren't they? Heated grips are well worth the install, no matter how difficult.

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys. I've already got a note into the supplier Lockitt.com. It'll be a $50 lesson. And everything was going so well too. The heat from the grips was really nice. Even warmer than the heated steering wheel on my wife's car. Oh well.

I feel for you, I hate it when I am working on something and this happens almost near the end. A few times I've melted down and something usually goes flying as a result. I hope you get this sorted soon & working. Just think how toasty your fingers will be soon!

I watched a friend install a Stebel horn in his GTS. When he first pressed the horn button the wiring burst into flames inside the front of the scooter. He put it out quickly but it could have ended really badly.

Did you over-tighten the nut on the shaft? Or try and shift the positioning after it was tight? First time I've read of a "mishap" with the Warm 'n Safe Heat-Troller. Glad to hear the Hot Grips(R) are working well. You can install the toggle switch and resistor until another Troller(TM) arrives. HTML FOR Registered Trademark was rejected in the "Leave your comment" box??? Will send it to you another way.

What I did was to use the nut designed for thicker fairings. Somehow I convinced myself that I had to use that nut. Getting the control installed in the Vespa's headset was a challenge. Once it was there, I installed that nut with the collar. Since the plastic is not sufficiently thick to accommodate that nut, once the nut was tight, there was still play in the switch. Without taking the time to understand what I was doing wrong, I tried to tighten the nut, and that's when the housing cracked. It was entirely my fault.

The good news is that Patrick at Lockitt.com checked with Warm and Safe and they have offered to repair the unit. I am just waiting for a return code and I'll send it off.

I have to say that the service I have gotten from both Hot Grips and Lockitt.com has been nothing short of superb.

I've got a project report ready to post here on my blog and on ModernVespa.com as soon as I recover from this blunder and finish the work.

Frustration with my incompetence aside, I am one happy customer.

Regards,

David

PS: I understand the concern with acknowledging trademarks and copyrights and while the comment feature is limited in what it permits, I'll edit my posts to insert the appropriate html code.

Jim, I have edited and re-published the posts relating to Hot Grips and the Heat-Troller® to add the trademark symbols. I've added them to this comment as well. We'll see if they work for me (which I doubt).

The copyright in all text and photographs, except as noted, belongs to David Masse.

About Life on two wheels

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I am David Masse, and this is Life on two wheels.

Life on two wheels began as a way to explore my decision to commute to my job in downtown Montreal from my home in the suburbs on a Vespa motor scooter, and the byline for my journal was the Scoot Commute. Today I live in Toronto, I've expanded the scope of topics I cover here, and I've added a YouTube channel as well.

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